The current employment landscape has a lot of people unexpectedly looking for a job. Forecasters in the wine industry have been very gloomy about wine sales and consumption. This has had some companies laying off employees, and many companies being wary about bringing on new employees. When the job market is in this part of it’s cycle, job hunters who proactively follow up increase their chances of landing a job. And as I stated in Part 4, networking is very important for your career. Now here’s how to do something many others don’t. Follow up.
Part 5 – Follow Up
Once you’ve crafted your resume, polished your cover letter, made your LinkedIn profile shine and are deep in your networking for your next position, arguably one of the most crucial steps is still ahead of you. That is following up. Following up on resume submittals and any contacts you make while networking can give you a step up in your career.
I truly believe that following up effectively is what separates a good job search from a great job search. It’s also what separates a good networker from an awesome one—so start thinking about how you are going to follow up with each situation. Let’s look at how best to follow up when sending a resume and after meeting someone you’d like to network with.
Resume Submission:
- When to follow up? Timing is key. My friendly Google AI Deep Dive result said that waiting 7-14 days is best before following up. Maybe. I’d keep it simple and follow up 1 week to the day of your submission. This way, you could put a reminder in your calendar and diligently follow up with each resume you send out. I do like Google AI’s idea to send the email on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. That may eliminate it getting buried in an inbox on a busy Monday or languishing there over a long weekend. To game it even further, maybe send it at 11:30 on those days, so that it hits someone’s inbox at or right after they return from lunch — when they may have time to get through all of their messages before the end of the business day.
- Who to contact? If you are applying for a position in a department or with a small company, you may be able to find the name of the hiring manager or owner on their website or on LinkedIn. If you cannot find a specific contact, email the HR or recruitment mailbox with a clear subject line.
- What to say? When following up on a resume submission, you want to have a professional tone. Craft a concise message that reiterates your enthusiasm and qualifications for the job. And make sure you don’t have any typos.
- When Not to Follow Up? If the job post says not to, follow those instructions. I recommend one follow up message to a resume submission. Yes, it would be polite if your application was acknowledged, but unfortunately that is not what happens with most submissions.
For someone you met during a networking function or were introduced to by a colleague:
- When to follow up? The best plan is to follow up within a day or two of the initial connection.
- What to say in that message? Remind the person of the context of your connection. This could be citing the networking event you attended, the seminar you attended where they presented or the person who connected you. If you have some common ground, mention it. I also recommend telling the person why you are interested in interacting with them, and if appropriate, a bit more about yourself and how the two of you may benefit by the connection.
- How to message? If you have the person’s business card, email them. If they are active on LinkedIn, it’s good to shoot them a InMail as well and ask to be a connection if that makes sense. If this person is professionally active on social media and you are too, it makes sense to follow them.
- Make your connection worthwhile: If you recently read an article that could be interesting to them—share it with them. If you saw an interview they were in, send a link to that interview.
- Propose next steps: When wrapping up your message, have a call to action. This could be setting up a time for a phone call, meeting for coffee or a glass of wine, connecting them with other industry contacts or sharing additional resources.
- Be professional and concise: I just threw a bunch of ideas out. Think about what makes the most sense for this contact. Keep your follow-up message concise and to the point.
Good luck, and I always appreciate it when people follow up with me!
Check out our other Job Hunting Primers.
